Homelessness and housing discrimination go hand in hand as many people who are homeless, end up in that position due to lack of jobs, housing, section 8 vouchers, or landlords providing them with a home. I knew that women, especially single mothers are more likely to be homeless due to most of them not being the breadwinners, or not having jobs available to them because of their motherhood. What I did not know was that twenty percent of children are living in homeless shelters. As a country that boasts providing opportunities for future generations, I believe that it is important that we find places to provide children a proper home with their families. Not only is it disheartening that a considerably world power has a grand population of homeless people, I find it annoying that we not only cut back on the amount of aid that we give them which can help them to quickly get back on their feet, but we don’t have enough shelters to house them in.  What I also find to be questionable is that the United States has the largest army in the world, and majority of the country’s budget goes to the armed forces. Although we have a large military budget, there is still a huge amount of veterans who are homeless and struggling with PTSD. I believe that their budget should be used not only for current military purposes, but provide veterans with housing, jobs outside of the military, and proper rehabilitation.

I feel that in the past, the USA used to put more care into welfare like New York City did in the past, but now it is more about generating revenue from tourists, which in turn end up hurting the homeless even more. For example, in  Hawaii, which is a huge tourist area for people in the USA and abroad, they fine people $1,000 for sitting, or laying on the sidewalk. This law not only targets the homeless, who would use those areas as places to rest, but it unfairly punishes them because they will not have the money to pay the fine, therefore most likely ending up in jail. Instead of trying to punish them for their homelessness, they should provide them areas to live. I know that the Mayor of Honolulu was pushing ordinances to build more public restrooms, and shelters which they lack. All states should ensure that they have proper facilities to help the homeless, rather than creating “universal” laws that end up targeting them.

Not only is homelessness a problem, but housing discrimination is a piece to why there are so many homeless people. Pre- civil rights era, there was a systematic housing discriminating as white people were given mortgages with low interest rates, allowing them to move to the suburbs, and buy houses in different areas. On the other hand black people were denied mortgages, and stuck in red-lined areas that lacked in values. Due to that, many black people ended up living in run down neighborhoods. Although housing discrimination is not systematic, it is now based on the individual. For example; for those who are able to get a section 8 voucher for subsidized housing, it is based on the landlord’s discretion to decide whether or not they would accept the voucher. Also, a lot of real estate agents would steer people of color into specific neighborhoods keeping areas segregated.  Another decision that led to housing discrimination was urban renewals. City developers would build highways, or other major projects in areas mainly populated by people of color, which would either end up pricing them out the neighborhood because staying there became to expensive, or pushing them into housing projects because their homes were destroyed in the renewal. Both homelessness and housing discrimination are issues that we need solve, and do it so that it is fair to everyone.